If his final challenge had not been a team effort, Twin Cities designer Raul Osorio felt he might have made it further on “Project Runway.”

“I don’t think I do very well on team challenges because I don’t like to compromise my vision,” Osorio said Friday, Aug. 17, the day after he was eliminated from the Lifetime reality series. “I obviously didn’t win the challenge, but I didn’t think it should have been me going home.”

The Minneapolis designer was sent packing in the fifth episode after a top with ruffles he constructed did not impress the judges. Osorio had already been eliminated two episodes earlier, during another team challenge. But he was brought back the very next episode after another designer walked out on the competition and a replacement was needed.

On the Thursday episode, Osorio told judges his teammate Elena Slivnyak, the 28-year-old designer out of San Francisco, should be sent home. He reiterated that opinion to Slivnyak backstage after his elimination, which he said he now regrets. “What I ended up telling Elena, I think I could have left on a better note,” he said.

Osorio, who turns 28 on Wednesday, said he felt it was fair the way he was portrayed on the show.

“I think that they did a good job showing who I am,” he said. “That was my work and I liked it — it’s who I am as a designer.”

On his website, Osorio describes his work as a “juxtaposition of hard lines, soft textures, masculine silhouettes and feminine lightness” as well as an “attention to tailoring.”

Osorio said it’s been an exhausting ride and looks forward to sitting back and watching the rest of the season, in which he thinks Christopher Palu, 24, of Massapequa, N.Y., should win.

“It’s about talent, but also about personality. I think Christopher has what it takes to do it,” Osorio said. “Also, he’s my buddy … of course I’m going to root for him.”

Nancy Ngo can be reached at 651-228-5172. Follow her on Twitter @nancyngotc.

Nancy Ngo is a Minnesota Native who grew up reading the Pioneer Press, so it’s fitting that she would one day work for them. She is a three time Society of Professional Journalists Page One Award winner. Before covering food and lifestyle, she has previously covered government and public safety. She has served on boards including the Asian American Journalists Association and The University of Minnesota’s The School of Journalism and Mass Communication Alumni Society Board.

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